The recession-proof Indian parties

Even parties with limited influences but with national aspirations are not short of finances. "I cannot tell you our budget but our party does not want to lag behind any other in the election campaign," asserted Munqad Ali, a Rajya Sabha MP of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that rules Uttar Pradesh and is dreaming of winning at least half of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Film clips showing the achievements of the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh and its Chief Minister Mayawati, who has not hidden her prime ministerial ambitions, have been on the air for weeks. The financially more prudent Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is not ready to reveal how much it spends on the election but insists that it never breaches the Election Commission rules.